Mountain Girl Silver - Hand-Stamped Customized Silver Jewelry - Portland, Oregon

It’s been a bit since I’ve blogged…. and quite honestly, that’s simply because it’s MOTHER’S DAY…   Ummm… Yah,,, Mother’s day is almost as busy as Christmas for Mountain Girl Silver. My neighbor, who is building this GINORMOUS fence in her backyard asked my opinion on how to trim her lilac bush yesterday, and whilst we were down the hill, me taking a look at it, she asked,, “So.. how are you doing?? How is business?”   and I told her that I’m feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment and that I have to take breaks during stamping and that managing the kids and the house and the business and stamping etc… it really does take a toll on my head and my heart.  And she stared at me….  and said.. “Ohhh boo hoo,, I’m so sad for you that you have a thriving business in this shitty economy,,, my heart really goes out to you!!”…  obviously being sarcastic…   And then it sort of hit me.    I think I probably flunked ECON in high school,, I’ve never given two poops about the stock market, I know nothing about interest rates, politics, or anything like that because it simply doesn’t interest me. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I watched the news.  My sis, Neen can totally vouge for me on that, because during the election with Obama and Bush,, I would call her endlessly asking her.. “Okay,, what does so and so mean about so and so??”     Does that make me totally a red neck hillbilly that doesn’t seem educated??  Maybe…. or maybe it just makes me a person that doesn’t care about things that I have NO… NO … NO control over.  My neighbor used to tell me.. “You’re totally the reason, Erika,, that this country is going to hell in a handbasket.”… She’s probably totally right.  But that was after I told her a few years ago that I didn’t feel the need to vote…   I’ve evolved since then,, and do vote,, but honestly.. I still could give a rats ass about politics, and fanny moe and freddy mike…   The only thing I keep my little eye on .. is the silver market..  duh…………  I’m sure .. some of you, reading this, just wants to slap me sideways..  But seriously,, why involve yourself so heavily in things that “little ol me” has no control over.  It’s self preservation for me..   purely… simply..    I start watching the 10 o’clock news with my hubby, and w/in the first 5 minutes I’m just like sick to my stomach with the crap that is going on in this world, that I would rather just roll over and start counting sheep……   Dreaming of that little log cabin in flippen Alaska that I would ultimately like to live in when my kids are out of the house….   Maybe it’s just me… maybe..  I have some friends who started a business about 5 years ago when I started my business.  It’s funny how we crossed paths..   And they, presently, are so burnt out on the business that they started that they are moving on and quitting said business and starting a new business. Not because their business is doing badly, but because their business has become so unbelievably popular and sought after, that they just can’t keep up. Actually,, they can keep up, but it’s starting to affect their quality of life, and the hours in which they get to sleep each night. Which, is a good “problem” to have. But when your business is losing money because you have too much business (which unless you are business person, you wouldn’t understand that analogy) then you know it’s time to move on.   But you see.. they are kick ass at whatever they start, so I’m like their biggest cheerleader. … which… this is totally off the subject, but I don’t even know what the subject is of this post…….. OH.. Yah.. the economy maybe??  

Bottom line…..  I’m soooo thankful that I trained myself to stamp, started a small business via word of mouth, got better and better and better at stamping with practice and trial and error, had a website made, started taking orders online, made customer service like my total priority (even if it meant answering the phone at 5:45am in the morning to those on the east coast or overseas that had absolutely NO idea what time it was in Oregon), doing everything, and revolving my whole entire life and day around Mountain Girl Silver…..   And so here I sit, this fine Friday evening….  having shipped out roughly 50 orders today with Daneen right there with me, that We stamped yesterday, my wingman Heather oxidized and polished overnight, and off they go…..   As my sister put it this morning… Mountain Girl Silver is a “way of life”…. it’s not just a business,, but it’s a total dedication … a dedication to our customers concerns, their wants, their needs, their orders, the extremes in which we go to get said order from point A to point B, it’s the lack of showering, it’s the lack of cleanliness of our homes…   these are the times… these are the times that get our adrenaline pumpin’….     An adrenaline rush surpasses anything in my book.  And the cake topper??   An order from Ireland today.  MGS is totally global,, but I’ve never shipped to Ireland before…   I need to get one of those maps with head pins on my wall…..    Cheers to a good weekend for anyone reading this…….   me… well… I’ll be stamping my fingers to the bone tomorrow…   and that’s in between yard work, baseball game, oh.. yah… and I think we’re going to move soon….

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 7:46 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.